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Employment
For some occupational groups, particularly those engaged in providing creative content, the multimedia revolution promises tremendous growth in opportunities for work as distribution channels multiply. Employment in the production of films and audiovisual products in 2003 in Europe stood at over 1 million jobs, compared to around 850,000 people in 1995, and only 630,000 in 1985. The American motion picture industry employed around 600,000 workers in 2002, compared with 221,000 in 1985, and now employs considerably more people than the aerospace industry. Some of that growth can be attributed to technology-related work in fields such as computer-generated digital production, visual special effects technologies, and systems and network management. Employment in live entertainment, television, print and electronic media is substantial in most countries, and is seen as an area with good potential for employment creation.
Skills and training
For workers in craft occupations tied to particular technologies, the challenge is to acquire new skills and adapt to new modes of working. Technology has erased or reduced the entrance barriers to many types of technical work by making them more user-friendly. Skills have become more easily transferable from one domain or type of equipment to another, enabling more crossover among technical and non-technical staff. The miniaturization of camera equipment has made cumbersome mobile TV units obsolete , replacing camera operators, sound specialists and support personnel with, for example, single reporters carrying lightweight camcorders, or much smaller crews.
Enterprise-based training may no longer be sufficient to meet the needs of future media workers. The employment structures of many firms in these converging industries rely on a diminishing core of permanent, or at least long-term, employees and on a growing portion of contingent workers employed part time, temporarily or on a project-by-project basis. Because of their employment status, these workers rarelybenefit from employer-provided training packages, which are largely directed to permanent staff. Also, small and medium-sized enterprises account for the most dynamic employment growth in this sector, but few are able to offer training themselves or to release staff from ongoing work. These employers depend almost entirely on the skills that their employees have acquired before being hired, either through formal education, previous work experience or at their individual initiative. In the future much of the burden and expense of training may ultimately fall on individual workers, whether in terms of initial preparation, ongoing education and training, or adapting to new professional orientations.
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